A space opera about legacy, self-discovery, and identity, The Artful Escape is a masterful musical narrative adventure. Developed by Beethoven and Dinosaur and published by Annapurna Interactive, this audacious journey follows a teenage guitar prodigy who has an overwhelming reputation to live up to. Traversing levels literally out of this world, this guitar-shredding and harmonious introspective game is a milestone in story-telling. This is a spoiler-free review, which I believe is the best way to experience a game like this.

A starman waiting in the sky

Francis Vendetti is a nervous and unsure folk musician from the small town of Calypso. With ambitions for great adventures of epic quality, Francis still has tremendous expectations weighing over him. We meet the musician practising a routine acoustic number when an innate electric guitar solo uncontrollably bursts out from within. Later that night, Francis awakes to an odd sound and an unexpected friend who helps him to realise new worlds and opportunities.

Floating in a most peculiar way

Arden Beckwith is the lead illustrator for the otherworldly backdrops. Designing such unimaginable ideas and turning them into incredibly stunning spaces is no easy feat. The animation and character work by Tessa Monash complements the environment art all so well. Everyone has this cut-out, puppet-like quality to them while moving with so much personality and smoothness. Combining all that with exceptional voices from Michael Johnston, Caroline Kinley, Jason Schwartzman, Lena Headey, and Mark Strong… this is some of the best overall character work in games. Despite all these people wearing glasses permanently, you can still sense and feel their emotions through the animation and how the world around them reacts.

By simply pressing one button, you can play elaborate guitar solos across these imaginative planes, mimicking the solo from The Darkness’ “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”. Feeling a lot like Ziggy Stardust, you can jump and strum an explosive chord, slide down hills on your knees like a rockstar, and pose a wide stance to activate platforms. As you play electrifying music, the stages around you light up along with you. Lasers shoot off into the air, creatures will rise, flowers will bloom, or lights will glow to show you the path forward. It’s all so seamless and fun that you won’t be surprised if you’re holding down the shred button the entire game.

Boss battles are a game of Simon Says, where the player needs to watch and match the button inputs on-screen. In concept, it’s not incredibly interesting or challenging. However, the audio and visual spectacle makes them worthy summits to each chapter, like the giant flying turtle and alien creature escape. You’ll have encounters with longer patterns and simultaneous button presses, which can be tricky, but these battles are generally straightforward. Regardless, they serve as a device to move the adventure on in an interactive way and don’t hinder the rest of the experience.

Gotta keep my groove strong

How well the guitar and background music blend is a testament to the audio design. Creative Director and musician Johnny Galvatron, composer Josh Abrahams of “Addicted to Bass” fame, and riff-master Eden Altman combine their brilliant minds to create harmony between the different tracks. Like magic, the cosmic-charged score backing each level mixed with the echoing electric guitar works so well. Galvatron told us in an interview that it works a lot like the Dark Side of the Rainbow phenomenon: the mind actually finding patterns in places it doesn’t exist. A modest comment, I think, for the impressive quality and expertise of the music and sound design of The Artful Escape.

All that is gone and all that’s to come

Further into the story, Francis completes the transition into a new self with an outfit customising section. The options here are pretty broad, with heaps of hair, glasses, clothes, suits, and more to mess around with and design a great look. You can turn Francis into a corpse paint wearing death metal guitarist or into a star-studded, groovy disco icon. The options are nearly endless with the variety on offer.

Personalisation is a fun addition, but it serves such a deeper purpose. At this point, the parallels to social issues with sexuality, gender, and identity are undeniable. I can’t help but feel many can and will find a lot of themselves within The Artful Escape and Francis’ journey. Renaming yourself, changing your look, making your own story so you can be who you want to be – it’s an important message to people that no matter who you are, you can reinvent yourself and feel empowered.

These aren’t the only challenging topics and lessons learnt throughout the narrative. Besides those mentioned above, the game touches on betrayal, narcissism, coming of age, imagination, fame, and affirmation. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, it’s clear that The Artful Escape is a contemplative artwork packaged in a bewildering gameplay experience by design. Many games try to do this, but Beethoven and Dinosaur get the balance right.